THE CLASSICS.

The Way We Traveled

For Early Tourists, Getting There Wasn't Always Easy

March 17, 1996|By Alfred Borcover. Alfred Borcover is a former travel editor of the Tribune.

Depending on whom you ask, classic vacations can range from a driving tour with the family to a spree at Walt Disney World. I actually know people who opt for the same lake vacation in Minnesota every summer, and in a sense, that annual pilgrimage could be considered a classic. The same applies to couples who take their children to the Polynesian Resort at Disney World every year. To each family, these vacations represent the epitome of "getting away."

Generally, though, I think of a true classic vacation as visiting a place with a long tradition of class and excellence, a place that has endured and maintained a certain panache through generations of visitors.

From the time this nation was in its infancy, people have vacationed in special places. Recalling the pleasures of the hot springs in Bath, Barnett and North Hall in England, the British sought counterparts in the colonies, places where they could socialize in the hot springs and partake of medicinal waters.

So the colonials flocked to such places as Berkeley Springs in Virginia and Yellow Springs outside Philadelphia. In a book called "Travelers" published by Morrow in 1980, the late Horace Sutton, a travel columnist and Saturday Review editor, recounted episodes of travel from the stagecoach era to the space age. One avid traveler Sutton wrote about was George Washington, whose classic destinations included Barbados and Berkeley Springs.

Washington took Patsy Custis, his stepdaughter, to Berkeley Springs during the summer of 1769. The trip from Mount Vernon took a week.

In 1751, Washington accompanied his brother, Lawrence, who was ill, to Barbados. The voyage to the Caribbean isle took nearly five weeks.

A sea trip along the East Coast, say from Charles Towne (as it was then known) in South Carolina to Newport ("the Bath of America") in Rhode Island took 10 days.

Newport attracted lavish spenders from the South and was dubbed "the Carolina Hospital," wrote Sutton. The vacationers, according to accounts of the day, watched horse racing on the beach, dined on West Indian cuisine and danced. Lessons were available in fencing, French, voice culture and a variety of musical instruments.

Traditional colonial getaways like Newport and Barbados have maintained their allure to this day. So have other destinations in North America born both of foresight and necessity.

The Ahwahnee, Yosemite, Calif.

To many devotees of national parks in the U.S., Yosemite is the icon, the quintessential park with such landmarks as El Capitan, Sentinel Rock, Half Dome and Bridalveil and Yosemite Falls.

Carved by glacial action eons ago, Yosemite National Park in California's Sierra Nevada is a UN World Heritage site, cherished by everyone.

"No temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite," wrote naturalist John Muir, whose crusade led to the creation of the park in 1890.

In the late 1800s, visitors trekked to Yosemite on foot, on horseback and by carriage. Accommodations were sparse and rustic. Early visitors stayed at a private campground, which included a store and a dairy. Then several entrepreneurs combined a horse-and-mule business and parlayed that into a complex of 15 buildings that included barns, sheds, corrals and employee housing. The advent of the car and bus brought even more visitors. Four early pioneer inns followed. By 1925, only the drafty Sentinel Hotel survived, but not for long.

By July 14, 1927, Yosemite boasted a first-class hotel, the Ahwahnee, which remains a gracious hostelry.

"The story goes that one spring in the 1920s, American-born Lady Astor, England's first female member of Parliament . . . registered at the venerable Sentinel," writes author Shirley Sargent in a Yosemite centennial publication. "After a horrified look at the drafty, unheated room and the communal bath at the end of the hall, she checked out and swept off in her chauffeured limousine."

The story, Sargent continues, prompted Stephen T. Mather, National Park Service director, to commission a year-round luxury hotel to replace the Sentinel in Yosemite Valley. The Ahwahnee is described as one of America's best examples of rustic architecture, a blend of granite, wood and handsome simplicity.

The 123-room Ahwahnee, with its 130-foot-long, 51-foot-wide and 34-foot-high Great Lounge, was and remains a hit. Lady Astor would approve, especially since the hotel has a long list of distinguished guests-Herbert Hoover, Queen Elizabeth, Winston Churchill, Eleanor Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy and an array of movie stars.

The hotel is so popular that guests often make reservations a year in advance. When the hotel opened, its room rates ranged from $10 to $50 a day (all meals included). Now, during peak season, which is most of the year, room rates (without meals) are $210 single and $214.50 double. Call 209-252-4848.